COMPUTERS/INTERNET/SECURITY

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts and businesses in the industry have had to put up with regulatory uncertainty for quite some time. The strong desire to tap into their incomes and profits goes hand in hand with failure on behalf of authorities and regulators to fully understand the nature of decentralized digital assets. Not to mention how absurd the reluctance to legalize something they want to tax anyway. Cases in Portugal show that it’s hard to positively know what exactly traders, investors and companies owe the state. Luckily, the narrow scope of the local tax legislation means they have to pay less than in other countries...

Now that Wikipedia has been exposed as little more than a pharma-pushing, truth-squelching disinformation racket that’s cloaked as some kind of independent online “encyclopedia,” the time is now for this obvious deep-state propaganda front to finally lose its Section 230 “Safe Harbor” protections.

What we mean by this is that Wikipedia, along with many other corrupt tech giants, continues to unfairly benefit from a special clause in the Communications Decency Act (CDA) that grants content providers immunity from liability for the information they publish that’s created by other people.

Since Wikipedia has decided to openly alter, remove, or otherwise censor information that its owners and editors find “offensive,” or that runs contrary to their preferred agenda, Wikipedia has transformed into a content publisher, meaning Section 230 protections no longer apply.

The Stuxnet virus that decimated Iran’s nuclear program was introduced by a Dutch mole working with the CIA and Mossad, intelligence sources claimed, as Israel is shopping its cyber weapons to anyone with cash to buy.

An Iranian engineer was recruited by the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD, acting under the direction of the CIA and Mossad, to infect some 2,000 Iranian nuclear centrifuges with the catastrophic Stuxnet virus, which set that country’s nuclear program back years, according to intelligence sources who spoke to Yahoo News.

The mole, who posed as a mechanic, reportedly provided data that was critical to helping the virus’ developers shape their code to specifically target the systems at the Natanz plant where it was ultimately unleashed, then helped get the virus onto the plant computers using a flash drive.

Activist Post has already reported about states filing lawsuits against the proposed Sprint / T-Mobile merger.

According to the Wireless Estimator, T-Mobile is postponing new builds and 5G upgrades at least for now. A construction manager who wants to remain anonymous blames the 15 state attorneys general for filing lawsuits against the T-Mobile / Sprint Merger. Lawsuits have also been filed against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for promoting and forcing 5G installation throughout American communities...

The U.S. wants to use the military’s Pentagon arm to police fake news online; what can possibly go wrong?

According to reports, the Pentagon’s DARPA research agency has announced it will deploy online cyber forces to watch for “large-scale, automated disinformation attacks,” using specialized software to detect deep fakes of photos, videos and audio clips...

An Australian national living in Boulder, Colorado was slammed with a one year and a day prison sentence last month for trading bitcoins. An August 23 statement from the Colorado U.S. District Attorney’s Office states that Emilio Testa, 32, was charged with money laundering, and claims Testa knew the funds he was acquiring had been used in narcotics deals. While Testa’s reason for trading was reportedly that “he preferred not to use banks or deal with taxes,” and the type of “narcotics” was not mentioned, the D.A. has pinned him for more serious crimes nonetheless, in an emergent pattern of targeting bitcoin traders while letting big-time criminals like banks, governments, and drug companies off the hook...

There is a push on for the creation of another unconstitutional federal agency that would create systems to identify “early signs of changes in people with mental illness that could lead to violent behavior.”

Coupled with “red flag” laws, this sounds like the beginning of a dystopian nightmare...

This is the full transcript of speech delivered by Margrethe Vestager, the European Union Antitrust Chief, held at the Business Forum of the German Ambassadors’ Conference, Berlin, 27 August 2019:

Ladies and gentlemen,

It’s a great pleasure, and an honour, to be here with you today. I want to thank Heiko Maas for those kind words, and for inviting me to join you.

I’m especially glad to have the chance to meet with you, who represent Germany’s 230 diplomatic missions around the world, as well as German industry. Because all of us here have an important role to play, to prepare Europe’s economy for the challenges of the future.

Thousands of iPhone users per week have been subject to an unprecedented 2.5-year hacking operation which was finally disrupted in January, according to researchers at Google’s external security team and reported by The Guardian.

iPhone users who visited a ‘small collection of hacked websites’ would then be subject to a malware download...

Palantir’s technology was developed in warzones like Fallujah, where it was used to anticipate roadside bombs and attacks by insurgents. Now, it’s being used on the streets of Los Angeles to root out criminals like something straight out of the movie Minority Report...

Media outlets reported this week that an international student at Harvard University was deported back to Lebanon after border agents in Boston searched his electronic devices and confronted him about his friends’ social media posts. These allegations raise serious concerns about whether the government is following its own policies regarding border searches of electronic devices, and the constitutionality of these searches and of social media surveillance by the government.

More than 400 police departments across the country have partnered with Ring, tech giant Amazon’s “smart” doorbell program, to create a troubling new video surveillance system. Ring films and records any interaction or movement happening at the user’s front door, and alerts users’ phones. These partnerships expand the web of government surveillance of public places, degrade the public’s trust in civic institutions, purposely breed paranoia, and deny citizens the transparency necessary to ensure accountability and create regulations.

What emerges is a partnership that allows police access to a widespread surveillance network, and coaching from Amazon on how to gain access to that footage and how to talk to the public. In return, Amazon gets a big boost in its efforts to sell millions of cameras...

Opposition to 5G installation in the U.S. is increasing and for many good reasons. In February, telecom executives gave congressional testimony that they had NO scientific evidence that exposure isn’t harmful...

On Tuesday, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced that the platform would invite “offensive” content back onto the site – writing in an open letter to YouTube creators “Without an open system, diverse and authentic voices have trouble breaking through.”

The first new video uploaded to the new War Room channel featured host Owen Shroyer celebrating Wojcicki’s announcement, and was titled “Breaking! YouTube CEO says ‘Alex Jones’ and ‘Infowars Ban Is Over.’”

The ruling class in Australia is expanding their power to block websites in the name of “safety.”

Earlier this year, ISPs in Australia and New Zealand blocked over a dozen websites in the wake of the Christchurch shooting without legal precedent including Zero Hedge, 4chan, 8chan, Voat and BitChute...

Another blip in what appears to be subtle yet rampant discrimination levied against certain American citizens has emerged on the social radar. As reported recently here, there appears to be another scoring system—other than credit scores—which is not only encouraging but mandating private companies to withhold their regular services from certain consumers.

Sometimes referred to as a “security score,” this rating system trumps excellent credit and has resulted in numerous Americans being denied the ability to transact with Western Union, eBay and various other companies...

Mexican military clashes with illegals at Mexico’s southern border
Does Mexico need a…WALL on their southern border?
Would it cost Mexico LESS in the long-run to build…a wall?
Democrat candidates review…how they’re doing, what to expect
If Biden drops out…
…who will absorb his African-American supporters?
James Mattis new book’s criticism of President Trump
Lawrence O'Donnell’s report and retraction, Maddow’s reaction
Elon Musk, Jack Ma debate AI potential
Software developer pushback against the Simulation Theory
Creative people vs software developer mindsets
Is the universe old enough to justify the theory of evolution?
Computers will never have “souls”…people don’t have them either
Whiteboard Talk: Mental Hacks
ReProgramming your own brain
EASY personal preference modification

By now, people the world over are well aware of the purge taking place across the Google-owned platform, YouTube. In fact, in 2017 YouTube terminated our own unblemished account here at Activist Post completely without warning and no recourse.

While many people still maintain that this has been a purge of primarily conservative voices, there are also examples of those on the left as well as the center who have also been struck down...Prager University is among those who have had their videos removed and has taken legal action to try and determine once and for all what we are dealing with when it comes to social media companies...

Last week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill that expands a state law barring warrantless location tracking to include historical location data. Enactment of this bill will not only strengthen privacy protections in Illinois, but it will also take another step toward hinder the federal surveillance state.

Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) along with a bipartisan coalition of cosponsors, introduced House Bill 2134 (HB2134) on Feb. 6. Under the old law, police were required to get a court order based on probable cause before obtaining a person’s current or future location information. HB2134 removes the words “current or future” from the statute. In effect, the law now includes historical location information under the court order requirement...

CEO Susan Wojcicki said Tuesday that it’s “more important than ever” for YouTube to remain an “open platform” just one day after going on a massive banning spree targeting right-wingers for so-called “hate speech.”

Amazingly, this is not satire. You can also read Activist Post's own experience, "YouTube Terminated Our Unblemished Channel Without Warning"

In February, an artificial intelligence lab cofounded by Elon Musk informed the world that its latest breakthrough was too risky to release to the public. OpenAI claimed it had made language software so fluent at generating text that it might be adapted to crank out fake news or spam.

On Thursday, two recent master's graduates in computer science released what they say is a re-creation of OpenAI’s withheld software onto the internet for anyone to download and use.

Social network users risk becoming more and more addicted to social media platforms even as they experience stress from their use.

Social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Instagram are known to cause stress in users, known as technostress from social media. However, when faced with such stress, instead of switching off or using them less, people are moving from one aspect of the social media platforms to another – escaping the causes of their stress without leaving the medium on which it originated...

In March, Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in The Washington Post: “I believe we need a more active role for governments and regulators.” What prompted this? Is he being a good, civic-minded, corporate citizen? Is he a poacher voting for more gamekeepers? New research suggests he may be neither.

How Regulatory Costs Help Big Firms

Big firms can bear the costs of complying with regulations more easily than small firms. If a set of regulations takes one person full time to keep on top of, this will fall as a share of employment the more people the company employs; their salary will be a smaller share of a big company’s revenues than a small one’s. This makes regulations a source of competitive advantage for the big firms lobbying for them, such as Facebook...

Most people have heard of DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — that is informally known as the mad science division of the Pentagon. Among their many infamous military programs, mind control and artificial intelligence have been of increasing interest. However, few people have yet heard of HARPA, which, according to reports, has all of the hallmarks to be an even greater threat to human liberty.

Activist Post reports regularly about the many individuals and organizations who are opposed to the forced widespread installation of 5G technology. Utility companies are among them and they have warned the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) that allowing more 5G spectrums for unlicensed and untested WiFi applications will interfere with their already problematic and combustible smart meters and grids...

Renewed attention over artificial intelligence for use in warfare (“killer robots”) is being brought to the forefront with the recent Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) held this past week in Geneva, Switzerland.

The meeting coincidentally comes just one day after a Dutch NGO, Pax for Peace, released a report about Big Tech’s involvement with supplying A.I. systems to the military. Their report, “Don’t be evil?” (PDF), examined 50 companies across the world that are involved. They ranked 21 of these companies as “high concern” with Microsoft and Amazon leading the way...

The Department of Homeland Security stored sensitive data from the nation’s bioterrorism defense program on an insecure website where it was vulnerable to attacks by hackers for over a decade, according to government documents obtained by the LA Times.

The data included the locations of at least some BioWatch air samplers, which are installed at subway stations and other public locations in more than 30 U.S. cities and are designed to detect anthrax or other airborne biological weapons, Homeland Security officials confirmed. It also included the results of tests for possible pathogens, a list of biological agents that could be detected and response plans that would be put in place in the event of an attack...

Children are wired 24/7 to their parents even when they don’t seem to be. And the least the parents can do, within the little time that they allow their children, is to be attentive to their needs and desires.

By such constant inattention, are we inadvertently conveying the message to children that a smartphone is more interesting?

The Wall Street Journal recently reported about the increasing number of local U.S. elected officials who object to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) forced widespread installation of 5G small cell technology — a la the “Race for 5G.”

The story was big enough that it made Drudge Report’s featured headlines, bringing additional awareness to this critical issue...

The opioid epidemic is the new devil Bitcoin is being blamed for inflaming, to be added to the already long list of heinous crimes crypto is supposedly responsible for, like terrorism, money laundering, and trafficking. While it’s painfully clear that the U.S. dollar is a much more common tool for these unethical and illicit activities, that doesn’t stop the powers that be from continuing their propagandistic assault on financial freedom — ignoring their own central role in creating these massive problems by pumping up the artificial monopolies that peddle them, and outlawing less dangerous and non-addictive solutions...

ALL Americans have a COMMON ENEMY…Fentanyl China
Is our Commander in Chief…able to “order” US out of China?
Economically, China IS a “villain”…AND pushing Fentanyl on us
PragerU goes to Ninth Circuit Court fighting YouTube’s suppression
Will the discovery process make their algorithm available?
Elizabeth Warren’s dancing and fitness levels are age-impressive
Do WOMEN think she dances “goofy” like men do?
Kamala Harris game hasn’t improved over time
Elizabeth Warren in contrast…has learned and improved
Drug problem + Mental Health Problem = Homeless Zombies
The “zombie class” is growing fast
Kanye's TEST dome-shelters, California says tear them down
Kanye TRIED, he’s working a good systems approach
Build some TEST domes…see how they work out
If they work, build more…if not, modify and try again

Lobbyists have a bad name for good reason. Activist Post has reported before about telecom and tech companies spending beaucoup bucks to sway elected officials and government employees to force the installation of risky technology – including utility “Smart” Meters and 5G – in communities across the U.S.

Thanks to Comparitech.com for providing more nauseating details in this recent article, “How much does your ISP spend on lobbying?”...

The Chicago Tribune conducted an investigation of various smartphone models and found that many exceed federal RF safety limits. Thanks to law firm Fegan Scott for starting their own investigation.

U.S. safety limits for cell phones were established in 1996. They don’t apply to today’s cell phones or other wireless devices. They also don’t apply to the way most people are exposed to wireless radiation emitting sources either...

An exposed database on a MoviePass subdomain housing 161 million records was left unsecured and exposed credit card and customer card information on at least 60,000 of the ticket service’s customers.

The database, which included expiration dates, names and addresses on some users as well as email and passwords, was discovered by SpiderSilk security researcher Mossab Hussein, according to a report from TechCrunch, which said the information may have been exposed for several months.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a new ruling in U.S. v. Cano [.pdf] that offers greater privacy protection for people crossing the border with their electronic devices, but it doesn’t go as far as we sought in our amicus brief.

I went to a counter-serve restaurant recently, and when the time came to pay for my order, took out my wallet, presented a $20 bill, and was told, “Sorry, we don’t accept cash.” I was flabbergasted. What happened to “legal tender for all debts public and private,” as it says right there on the bill?

This has now happened to me at three separate establishments in recent months. The rise of cashless establishments is happening amid continuing hype over the supposed dawn of a “cashless future” and agitation by some very powerful interests that would love to see cash disappear. The credit card companies love it, naturally, and tech industry associations have also pushed for the concept.

Meanwhile, a backlash has prompted several cities and states including San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New Jersey to ban cashless stores ...

On Aug. 8, 2017, Roma Laster, a Pentagon employee responsible for policing conflicts of interest, emailed an urgent warning to the chief of staff of then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Several department employees had arranged for Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, to be sworn into an influential Pentagon advisory board despite the fact that, in the year since he’d been nominated, Bezos had never completed a required background check to obtain a security clearance.

This happens after Valve disputed the significance of the previous Steam 0day disclosed by Kravets on Twitter and banned him out of their HackerOne bug bounty program.

Seeing that this vulnerability impacts only the Steam Windows client, with Steam having over 100 million registered users and 96.28% of them are running Windows according to the Steam Hardware & Software Survey: July 2019, the systems of roughly 96 millions of them are currently affected.

The cities of San Francisco and Seattle are testing a new way to report homeless encampments or “tent cities” via dialing 311 or using an app. Meanwhile, LA lawmakers are pushing to ban homeless people from parks, schools, and other designated areas.

There's one problem conflating homelessness into other public service issues as the author writes for Smart Cities Dive, "people aren't potholes." ...

Considering all the research and news reports on “Screentime” being addictive and behaviorally, emotionally and physically harmful, even horn growth inducing – and kids being especially affected by all of this – these new findings can’t be all that surprising, can they? Heck – even the U.S. government offered up some pretty scary research confirming that “Screentime” is harming kids’ brains...

Those of us who are old enough remember that there were no “Smart” phones in 1996. There were cell phones for making calls — that’s it. Most people didn’t own them. Parents certainly weren’t giving them to their kids.

U.S. safety limits don’t apply to today’s cell phones and other wireless devices. They don’t apply to the way most people are exposed to them either. It’s not surprising that the Chicago Tribune discovered that various smartphones exceed the FCC safety limits. What’s unfortunate is that these limits have offered no protection to any of us for many years now...

Renowned psychologist Robert Epstein blew the lid off Big Tech’s censorship and voter manipulation during his July Senate testimony, and now he’s shifting focus to the woman who gained the most from the scam in 2016...

As if you needed another cybersecurity issue to worry about, a team of researchers at Southern Methodist University have discovered that it is quite possible for hackers to use your smartphone’s sensor to intercept the sound of your keyboard typing. After picking up these sound waves, a skilled hacker could potentially analyze and decipher which keys were struck and piece together the words being typed.

Even in a loud and crowded room filled with people talking amongst each other and typing, researchers say they were able to capture and decode the majority of what was being typed...

Twitter announced Monday that they had suspended over 200,000 accounts allegedly linked to a Chinese government influence operation in Hong Kong and claimed that "covert, manipulative behaviors have no place on our service."

Facial recognition technology is spreading fast. Already widespread in China, software that identifies people by comparing images of their faces against a database of records is now being adopted across much of the rest of the world. It’s common among police forces but has also been used at airports, railway stations and shopping centres.

The rapid growth of this technology has triggered a much-needed debate. Activists, politicians, academics and even police forces are expressing serious concerns over the impact facial recognition could have on a political culture based on rights and democracy.

As someone who researches the future of human rights, I share these concerns. Here are ten reasons why we should worry about the use of facial recognition technology in public spaces...

Free speech in the patent world saw a big win on Friday, when the New Hampshire Supreme Court held that calling someone a “patent troll” doesn’t constitute defamation. The court’s opinion is good news for critics of abusive patent litigation, and anyone who values robust public debate around patent policy. The opinion represents a loss for Automated Transactions, LLC (ATL), a patent assertion entity that sued more than a dozen people and trade groups claiming it was defamed.

EFF worked together with the ACLU of New Hampshire to file an amicus brief [PDF] in this case, explaining that the lower court judge got this case right when he ruled against ATL. That decision gave wide latitude for public debate about important policy issues—even when the debate veers into harsh language. We’re glad the New Hampshire Supreme Court agreed...

AntiRa…A group for people who are Anti-Racist
If you’re anti-racist, you’re a “natural member” of AntiRa
If you’re OPPOSED to AntiRa…you’re obviously a racist
CNN guest Angela Rye’s reaction to the word “hijack”
The growing list of common words that are now unacceptable
Google’s alleged vote-shifting bias
Isn’t unintentional political bias…still political bias?
Culture differences between upstate NY and California
Will Biden destroy Obama’s legacy if he’s the candidate?
Isn’t AOC…”The Squad”, aren’t the others just coat-tailing AOC?
Interesting CNN coverage of the non-AOC squad members
Buttigieg has proven…America doesn’t care if our POTUS is gay
“Life Strategy” college degree concept
Things that work together for super-productivity
How employable would you be with a fully loaded talent stack?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other health experts warn that kids are more vulnerable than adults to exposure. In fact, no safe level of exposure has even been determined for children or pregnant women. This is why many health experts, parents and teachers in the U.S. and around the world have been trying to get schools to replace WiFi with wired internet.

One hospital is determined to reduce exposure to pediatric patients AND encourage parents to reduce their children’s exposure everywhere else...

Apple has inadvertently unpatched a bug in its iOS that makes users with the newest software able to jailbreak phones, but also leaves them vulnerable to attack.

The bug, identified over the weekend by security researchers, was previously identified by Google analysts and patched in iOS 12.3, but a recent transition to 12.4 which was released in July, has given the more than 100-day-old flaw new life.

According to anonymous researchers who spoke to Motherboard, the bug significantly lowers the barrier for hackers looking to steal users' data.

In February, the Telecom Industry gave congressional testimony that they have NO scientific evidence that exposure to 5G is safe. This being said, it’s always bizarre and annoying when journalists defend it.

CNET Science Editor Jackson Ryan must not have gotten that memo. Then again, maybe Jackson prefers living in a fantasy world remaining completely oblivious to any research that has already determined exposure to all sources of wireless radiation is harmful – not just 5G...

As long we’ve had electronic mass media, audiences and creators have benefited from periods of technological upheaval that force old gatekeepers to compete with brash newcomers with new ideas about what constitutes acceptable culture and art. Those newcomers eventually became gatekeepers themselves, who then faced their own crop of revolutionaries. But today, the cycle is broken: as media, telecoms, and tech have all grown concentrated, the markets have become winner-take-all clashes among titans who seek to dominate our culture, our discourse and our communications.

How did the cycle end? Can we bring it back? To understand the answers to these questions, we need to consider how the cycle worked — back when it was still working...

MX Linux is a cooperative venture between the antiX and former MEPIS communities, using the best tools and talents from each distro. It is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint.

As I pointed out in a recent article, mainstream media outlets are delivering conspiracy theories—at least by implication. Therefore, in light of the recent FBI “finding” that such theories can fuel violent terrorism, these outlets should be investigated, censored, blacked out, and de-platformed.

The History Channel would be a prime candidate.

In its series, Ancient Aliens, we are treated to the theory that John Kennedy was murdered to keep him from…here is the quote from the History Channel:

“Theorists propose the possibility that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in order to keep the truth about [extraterrestrial] aliens on Earth from getting out in this clip from Season 12, Episode 9, The Majestic Twelve.”...

The FCC is supposed to protect the public by regulating the Telecom Industry. Instead they have a long history of protecting the telecom industry at the public’s expense. This has become way scarier due to the “Race for 5G” which involves installing hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of small cells in front of homes and everywhere else.

Opposition and warnings have been publicized by a growing list of credible sources including Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and 19 American tribal groups...

This is the system our ruling oligarchs are trying to implement in America.

Big Tech has already implemented their own “social credit score” system where they punish people for their political views by deplatforming them, censoring their websites and closing their PayPal/bank accounts...

In 2017, Swiss doctor Bertrand Buchs launched a petition asking for a moratorium on installation and many doctors and scientists have already signed it.

Worldwide opposition to 5G is growing and includes individuals and organizations concerned about other issues associated with this technology in addition to biological and environmental risks. Regardless, 5G continues to be installed and operated in the U.S. and around the world even though it’s been reported that people and their pets have been getting sick from exposure. This is now also being reported in Geneva, Switzerland...

The rise of “Surveillance Capitalism” by businesses and other entities has made it so that we’re all being subjected to data collection by multiple sources almost all of the time whether we’re conscious of it or not.

Some people willingly participate in data collection. Others don’t like it but believe there is no point doing anything to stop it. Then there are those who continue to try to reduce their involuntary participation. One way is by wearing clothes that trick privacy violating cameras...

Most people know that the NSA spies on Americans thanks to the revelations by Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers. But the NSA is just the tip of the surveillance iceberg. State, local and federal agencies have joined together the create a massive surveillance-state using a vast array of intrusive technology.

Federal intelligence agencies, including the NSA, CIA and DEA, collect data without a warrant, analyze it to build profiles on its targets and encourages state and local law enforcement to violate our fundamental right to privacy...

All but four of the 30,490 emails from Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized email server were forwarded to a private Google email address featuring the name of a Chinese company, according to documents released on Aug. 15.

Virtually every email which was sent to and received on the Clinton server was forwarded to “carterheavyindustries@gmail.com,” the documents show.